


One Way Trip

by Slaskia



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Conflict, Conspiracy, Drama, Gen, Internal Conflict, M/M, Sabotage, Terrorism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 05:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2056308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slaskia/pseuds/Slaskia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one-shot that covers the motivations and reasons why Arsenus Ataken committed a terrible crime during the events of 'Buried Secrets: Bygones'.  For obvious reasons, this short contains spoilers for 'Buried Secrets: Bygones'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Way Trip

_2199CE, 0003 hrs, <REDACTED>, Menae, Barracks_

He had woken up almost the instant the clock indicated it was the next day. Today a lot of turians hoped would be the first step in reestablishing contact with the galactic community. The day hopes will be dashed, perhaps even shattered completely.

All because of him…because he couldn’t escape from his past.

Arsenus sat up and sighed heavily, having dreaded this day for some time. He wished he could have avoided it, but fate seemed to have it in for him. _You just don’t want me to have a normal, happy life, do you?_ he mentally asked any gods that were out there.

His parents divorced when he was only a baby, his mother winning custody of him. Not that his father gave a shit about him anyway, from what he was told. Still, he had been happy enough, despite spending more time with his grandparents than his mother, due to her duties as a ship engineer on the 2nd Fleet. That changed, however, when the Reapers came.

The 2nd Fleet had been one of many fleets tasked with joining the massive offensive in the Sol system. His grandparents took offense to their homeworld being essentially abandoned for the sake of ‘dirty humans’, calling those that accepted those orders ‘traitors to Palaven’. When they got word that his mother’s ship was confirmed lost, they abandoned him, dumping him into an orphanage. That was when his unwilling connection with _them_ started, the anti-Hierarchy group known as the _Tyranors._ It was a connection he thought he had shaken once he aged out of the orphanage system and joined the military.

He would be proven wrong.

It felt like almost the moment he was assigned to the _Tantupe_ retro-fit project on Menae, he was contacted by them, asking for a _favor_ in return for taking care of him after his relatives abandoned him. He didn’t know how they found him, or how they managed to avoid detection by intelligence. The suggestion that they had agents _that_ deep in the Hierarchy was frightening.

Still, he had refused them, telling them flat out he wanted nothing to do with their _revolution_. In hindsight, he realized now he should have reported it to his superiors. Perhaps he would have been removed from the project and be reassigned somewhere safer, but he hadn’t thought of it then, having just wanted to put that chapter of his life far behind him. It hadn’t helped that he got a false sense of security when they didn’t contact him again right away.

A month later, they contacted him again. This time though, they planted seeds of doubt in his mind over the project itself. For instance, why was the prototype drive being installed in a dreadnaught class and not a frigate for a simple test run? Why was the test scheduled to be run with a full crew when it would be wise to run with a minimal crew in case something goes wrong? In short: why was the Hierarchy acting so _reckless_?

After double checking the information himself, he realized that the Hierarchy _was_ being reckless with this. As any responsible turian would do, he spoke to his engineering superior about his concerns. These were soon echoed by others in his department. Unfortunately, though the chief engineer shared those concerns, they were ignored by those higher in the chain of command. On top of that, they seemed to be _punished_ for their dissent by being forced to work overtime frequently. It caused a lot of stress for everyone on his team.

Then came the third message. Again, the _Tyranors_ wanted a _favor_ from him. This time they actually told him what they wanted him to do: to sabotage the _Tantupe_ , specifically the prototype warp drive. While he had his doubts about the Hierarchy’s motivations, he wasn’t about to destroy something that he worked so hard to help create. So he had refused them once more and warned them not to contact him again.

This time though, he got an almost immediate response back: a warning that there may be consequences for refusing their request. There was also a warning about going to the authorities on them.

Arsenus realized then he was trapped. If he went to the authorities now, he would be questioned on why he didn’t inform them of these communications from the start. He’d be placed under suspicion, removed from the project, his career ruined.

And there was also the chance he would be separated from the man he loved.

He looked down at Mylos, whom was sleeping soundly next to him. Arsenus realized it was selfish to place his relationship above his duty to turian society, but Mylos had been the one source of true happiness in his life. He couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from him, or anything coming to harm to him or his family. Yet, he had put his beloved Mylos and his family at risk by not doing the proper turian thing and telling his superiors about his contact with the _Tyranors_ from the start.

Then things seemed to change. Apparently a member of his team got through to _someone_ in the chain of command, as a couple of officials on the project were reassigned and his team’s work schedules improved. It was still hectic due to the deadline they were under, but they at least had some _breathing room_ again. He even heard that the test flight will no longer have a full crew compliment, which was music to his ears. It was a pity though that the retrofit was too far along to change the ship itself, but he was willing to take his victories when he could. With things looking up, he forgot about the warning he was given.

Then Mylos’ mother died in hit-and-run collision.

Mylos was devastated at the news and Arsenus knew he was to blame. While, officially, the death was being treated as vehicular manslaughter, he knew it was really a first degree homicide. He knew, the _Tyranors_ where responsible and the phone call he got shortly after not only cemented that fact, but made him realized just how much of a threat to Mylos they were.

Arsenus remembered the chill he got down his spine when he first heard that voice, the voice of a man he thought was dead, asking how his ‘boyfriend’s mother was’. The voice of Brulus Zissen, leader of the _Tyranors_. Arsenus remembered wanting to ask how he was still alive, but was struck speechless at the time. Thinking back now, that had probably been a good thing, because if it had been really Brulus, he wouldn’t have wanted anyone to know he was still alive and asking such a question may as well signed his death warrant.

 _Not that it matters now: I’m still dead,_ Arsenus reminded himself as he finally pulled himself out of bed. Looking at the clock, he saw it was now 0014: he wanted to do the deed at 0100 hrs, to minimize casualties. He knew Brulus would have wanted it done just before the test flight itself, which was scheduled at 0900 hrs, specifically to _maximize_ casualties. So he wouldn’t be happy with him doing this now, but Arsenus didn’t care, in fact, he _wanted_ to screw Brulus over.

He smiled as he pulled on his E-suit, remembering the ‘gift’ he would be leaving behind. A gift that would screw over any other similar plots Brulus had, provided it got into the right hands. It taken him some time to compile the data he needed onto a disk, which also held a video confession he made. He had to come in work very early one morning to ensure he could record it without being disturbed, or discovered, by his peers. That video would reveal more than just his confession why he was doing this. It would also reveal his suspicions about the man he loved.

Arsenus still wasn’t completely positive of his suspicions, but he felt he couldn’t take the chance of dismissing them. He was almost _certain_ Mylos was the same boy he met at the orphanage all those years ago: they had the same coloration and very similar facial features including that little curl in his forehead plate Arsenus always found cute. The problem, was that the boy he knew back then was shot dead for being a biotic by his own father: Brulus himself. However, the location of the shot, was the same as the scar on Mylos’ head, though Mylos himself didn’t remember anything prior to being found by his now adopted father.

Too much fit and so Arsenus knew he couldn’t risk Brulus finding out more about Mylos. If Brulus found out his ‘freak of a son’ was still alive, he would hunt him for the rest of his life. Arsenus didn’t want that to happen, but the only way to give Brulus no reason to look into Mylos further was to remove the one connection he had to him: himself.

With a heavy heart, he looked down at his sleeping lover one last time as he finished zipping up his E-suit. Mylos hadn’t stirred one bit while he dressed, as he knew he wouldn’t: Mylos had always been a heavy sleeper. Sometimes he joked that not even a band of rowdy drunk krogan partying in the same room could wake him, to which Mylos always called him a smartass for.

 _Oh Mylos….,_ Arsenus thought as he picked up his helmet. _I hope they don’t give you too much trouble after I am gone. I kept you out of this as best I could so they wouldn’t._ He wished now he had never pursued a relationship with him, knowing the pain he had and was about to cause him. However, life was a one way street, a one way trip, you could make left and right turns, but you could never go in reverse. He had made his choices and it was time he owned up to them, albeit not in the typical turian manner.

The clock showed the time was now 0030, if he was going to do this at the time he decided, he best left now. With his helmet tucked under one arm, he double checked the disk containing the ‘gift’ was still in its hiding place: the back of a picture frame that held a photo of him and Mylos at their boot camp graduation. Satisfied it was still there, he gave Mylos one last look before stepping out of the room.

Arsenus had felt the temptation to touch Mylos, to feel his warmth one last time, but he felt he no longer deserved it. He even felt bad about the sex they had earlier in the night, knowing he only wanted it out of selfish desire; to have one last happy moment. A moment to pretend none of this was happening, to give the illusion that all was as it should be. But it wasn’t.

And it was his fault.

It was a realization that made him only quicken his pace down the silent, darkened corridor.

\--

_0043 hrs, Tantupe retro-fit bay_

It took him longer than he wanted to get to the transport station, which was the only way to get to the retro-fit bay without using a manned shuttle. Normally the trip from the barracks to here only took five minutes, but it seemed security had been increased in anticipation of the test flight later today. Arsenus mentally cursed himself for not taking this into consideration, having been forced to hide from a couple of patrols on the way, which wasted precious time. The fewer people that saw him now, the better his chances he’d pull this off.

The biggest challenge would be the guard posted at the rail transport that would take him to the _Tantupe_ itself. For the last few days the guard let him on without question, but that was when it was only an hour or two before his normal work shift. Today he was attempting to get on nearly seven hours ahead of his shift, so he doubted he’d be allowed on so easily. He just hoped he didn’t have to resort to violence….

Luck was with him so far, as it appeared they didn’t increase the security at the rail transport station: only one guard stood between him and the _Tantupe_ itself. _Un_ fortunately, it was someone he knew: Sergeant Corellix Medros. Corellix often had the graveyard or early shift here, so he had seen Arsenus come in early before. He was also the proud father of five month old twins, which made him really hope he didn’t case him any issues.

"Corporal Ataken," Corellix said as he approached. "I knew you liked to report in early, but I must say, this is extreme even for you."

"Couldn’t sleep, sir," Arsenus replied. "Figured I may as well do some more checks before the big event, you know, just to be safe."

"While I don’t blame you for your concern, seeing this is barely tested new tech and all, do you really think it’s a good idea to go tinkering with it on little sleep?"

"Probably not, but I felt I needed to do _something_ other than laying in my bed staring at the ceiling bored out of my skull."

The guard laughed at that. " _That_ , I can understand," he said. Arsenus started to relax, assuming he was going to let him through. "Unfortunately," Corellix said, shattering his hopes of a _peaceful_ resolution. "I’m under orders to not allow anyone else onboard until 0730 hrs and even then only authorized personnel. You match the latter, but not the former, Corporal."

 _Dammit!_ Arsenus mentally swore, having to fight to keep the panic he was starting to feel on his face. "’Anyone else’ you said," Arsenus said, doing his best to keep his voice even and casual. "Who is on board?"

"Couple of security teams," Corellix replied. "A precaution, perhaps an unnecessary one, in case anyone tries anything funny. There’s been some…discontent about the project going around, I’m sure you’ve heard."

"Yeah, I have." _Considering I’m the one that started it?_ Arsenus thought with a sigh, sneaking a glance at the time: it said 0045. _I really don’t want to hurt him, but it looks like I may have to: I’m running out of time._ "How’s the little ones doing?" he asked causally as he walked over and leaned on the railing that kept people from walking off the platform and into chasm below.

"Growing fast," Corellix replied with a proud smile. "One of them is already trying to crawl: I hope I get some leave authorized in time to see it."

"I hope so too." Arsenus shifted the helmet he still had under his arm into his hands, pretending to be checking it for defects. "You had a hard enough time to getting time off to attend their birth if I remember right?"

"Ugh, don’t remind me," the guard groaned. "That’s the problem with being assigned to a place like this: getting time off to spend time with the wife and kids is a bitch!"

"Yeah…it is…." Arsenus whipped the helmet around, striking the man on the side of the head. Corellix cried out in shock and alarm, but before he could react, Arsenus grabbed him by the head and slammed it into the railing, knocking him out cold. "I’m sorry…," Arsenus said regretfully as he took his keypass. "Spirits willing, you’ll be alive to see your wife and kids after this." He then quickly got on the rail transport and used the guard’s keypass to activate it. Within seconds, the transport was rumbling down the line, toward the _Tantupe_.

Knowing the ride would take a couple of minutes, Arsenus took the time to steady his nerves. He reached up to wipe his forehead, only to stop in shock to see specks of blood on it. _I must have hit him harder than I thought,_ he thought with another sigh. Hopefully he didn’t do lasting damage to the man, as he didn’t deserve it. He also hoped Corellix wouldn’t be in the explosion radius when he sets off the warp drive. Arsenus didn’t want any more blood on his hands if he could help it: the fact that there were security teams on aboard was bad enough.

Then it dawned on him that it was highly possible security monitoring the cameras dotting the facility saw what he just did. If they had, they would be alerting the security teams on the ship itself and depending on where they were on the ship, they may be waiting for him at the airlock, stopping his sabotage attempt short. _Perhaps it would be better that way,_ Arsenus thought. _I’ll be in hard labor for the rest of my life, forever separated from Mylos, but no lives would be lost…._ No, Brulus would likely ‘punish’ him for his failure by having Mylos and/or his adopted father killed. He had to succeed, for Mylos’ sake. He checked the time: it was 0048.

Finally the transport pulled up beside the loading dock and he quickly disembarked. Normally, there could be up to three ships docked here, but the _Tantupe_ was large enough to cover the whole stretch of the loading dock. This meant Arsenus had his choice of airlocks to use to get inside, but in the interest of time, he chose the one that would take him the closest to engineering. Fortunately, he wasn’t greeted by any guards. Yet.

Knowing that likely won’t be the case for long, he ducked into the service tunnels and quickly made his way to Engineering. From dry runs he made before, he knew he could get there in five minutes, which would leave him about six minutes to pull this off before his self-imposed deadline. Easy enough, considering all he had to do was disable the power to the magnetic fields containing the anti-matter, the anti-matter itself will do the dirty work. The only problem is that there was no way for him to predict how big the resulting explosion would be.

The hatch to engineering was above him now. Arsenus waited a precious moment to listen to see if any guards were close by before opening it. _So far so good,_ he thought as he climbed out and entered Engineering itself, where he was greeted by the low hum of the ships main reactor above. In front of him was the warp drive, a tall, cylindrical device covered with various monitoring equipment and cables. Through all that, he could just see the faint electric blue flicker of the magnetic field responsible for keeping the anti-matter from having a destructive party with the matter of its own housing. It even had its own reactor specifically designed to power said magnetic field, though it also used the main reactor as a backup.

It was currently 0055, time was running short.

 _Time to get to work,_ Arsenus thought as he removed the gloves of his E-suit. As a precaution, he put engineering into lockdown. This would alert security on the ship, if they weren’t already, but unless one of them had the override codes, he wouldn’t be disturbed. Only the ship commander, chief of engineering, or head of security would have those codes: he doubted any of them was awake at this hour, hence another reason why he chose this time.

There was bang on the Engineering door, but Arsenus ignored it. He had to focus. First he had to severe the connection between the warp drive and the main reactor: the main reactor served as the emergency backup in case the drive’s own reactor failed. It was 0057 when he succeeded. Now he had to shut down the reactor connected to the magnetic field generator itself.

The banging on the door was getting more insistent, Arsenus could hear the security guard screaming at him, demanding he let them in. They hadn’t thought about the service tunnels, which were not included in the lockdown. Yet.

0058, there was now a big, red, flashing confirmation button on the holo display, with a warning about what would happen if he confirmed his command. Only now did Arsenus hesitate: he was really about to do this. _It seems a shame,_ he thought, his finger hovering over that button. _This old girl has a long proud history…for her to go out like this…It’s an insult to her Spirit._

It couldn’t be helped now, though. He had made his choice. His life had reached a dead end.

He pressed the button.

 _ **//Warning!\\\**_ The ships VI announced. **_//Magnetic field generator has lost power. Warp drive explosion imminent. Evacuate immediately.\\\_**

Arsenus noticed the banging and screaming at the door had stopped at the announcement. Hopefully, the security team would be wise enough to head for the escape pods. He hoped they would get to them in time if they were.

As for him, he sat down against the wall, facing the warp drive. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out an unframed copy of his and Mylos’ graduation photo, noticing for the first time that Mylos wasn’t actually smiling in it: he looked more annoyed, actually. _I always had trouble getting you to smile,_ he thought with a weak smile. _I treasured the times I succeeded._ His expression saddened. _I know you will hate me for this, Mylos…but I did this to protect you. Selfish I know…but you were the only damn good thing in my life. I do this because I love you, more than anything else in this damn galaxy._

He touched his forehead to the photo, a part of him wish it was really Mylos he was touching. No, he didn’t deserve his touch, not after this. He focused on the good memories, like the time Mylos got so drunk he somehow wound up on the roof of the barracks with nothing on but his underwear. All the pranks he pulled, like the pink flight suit one: Mylos hadn’t spoken to him for two days straight after that one. _I hope you find someone worthy of you, Mylos,_ he thought. _I am nothing._

The warp drive blew then, the last thing he saw was a flash of light.

It was 0100.


End file.
